Many methods have heretofore been proposed for imparting biocompatibility to medical materials.
Regenerated cellulosic materials are used advantageously as medical polymer materials, and it is well known to obtain anticoagulant medical polymer materials by fixing heparin to regenerated cellulose or derivatives thereof.
However, this method of fixing heparin directly to the substrate cellulose has only limited practical feasibility on account of problems such as insufficient heparin fixation.
Many processes have therefore, been proposed for producing medical polymeric materials to solve these problems. An exemplary process consists of reacting a heparin derivative with a polymerizable vinyl monomer and regenerated cellulose or a derivative thereof in an aqueous solvent in the presence of a polymerization initiator to thereby impart anticoagulation to the regenerated cellulose (see, for example, Unexamined Published Japanese Patent Application No. 162702/1982).